NLRB v. Gibbs Corporation

Decision Date02 January 1962
Docket NumberNo. 18795.,18795.
Citation297 F.2d 649
PartiesNATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Petitioner, v. GIBBS CORPORATION and Southern Shipbuilding, Inc., Division of Gibbs Corporation, Respondents.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Dominick L. Manoli, Associate Gen. Counsel, Marcel Mallet-Prevost, Asst. Gen. Counsel, Warren M. Davison, Atty., Stuart Rothman, Gen. Counsel, Samuel M. Singer, Atty., N.L.R.B., Washington, D.C., for petitioner.

Albert S.C. Millar, Jr., Hamilton & Bowden, Jacksonville, Fla., for respondents.

Before JONES and BELL, Circuit Judges, and SIMPSON, District Judge.

JONES, Circuit Judge.

The National Labor Relations Board has petitioned for the enforcement of its order directed to the respondents. At the time of the occurrences from which the Board's order stemmed, the respondents operated a shipyard at Jacksonville, Florida. Its employees had been represented for a number of years by the Independent Workers Union of Florida. Repeated but unsuccessful organizational efforts had been made by Industrial Union of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers of America, AFL-CIO, which will here be referred to as the Union. On August 8, 1959, two Union organizers went to the shipyard where, among other activities, they were distributing leaflets which are referred to by Board counsel as "literature," as a part of the effort to procure membership. The Union organizers supposed they were in a street but in fact were on Gibbs' property. There was an exchange between the Union organizers and officers of the Independent Union of hyphenated insults and other vulgarity as well as of threats. On the afternoon of August 10 the Union organizers, three in number, returned to the shipyard and resumed the distribution of leaflets or handbills. Representatives of the respondents' management informed them they were on private property and ordered them to leave. The organizers retired and sent for a police officer to inform them as to the location of the Gibbs property line.

On the night of the 10th of August five representatives of the Union came to the streets adjacent to the shipyard. There is a wide variance between the recitals of the witnesses for General Counsel and those for the respondents as to the occurrences. There was a brawl and some of the Union representatives received injuries. These were made the basis of charges against the respondents. The respondents contended before the Board and renew their contention here that the Union organizers came to the respondents' plant looking for a fight with the officers and adherents of the Independent Union, and that they succeeded in the realization of their objective. The respondents characterize the incident as a scuffle in which the only role played by the respondents' management was that of peacemakers. The Board found, with substantial supporting evidence, that there was an unprovoked attack made upon the Union men which was directed and participated in by supervisory personnel of the respondents. The Board's order, which it here seeks to enforce, directs the respondents to cease and desist "from assaulting, beating or otherwise engaging in physical violence, or inciting, encouraging or assisting others to assault, beat or otherwise engage in physical violence, for the purpose of discouraging membership in, or activities on behalf of, any labor organization of their employees; and in any like or related manner interfering with, restraining or coercing their employees in th exercise of the rights guaranteed in Section 7 of the Act." The respondents were also directed, by paragraph 2(a) of the Order, to "take all reasonable and prudent steps to afford all persons lawfully on or about their shipyards adequate protection at all times from intimidation, physical assaults, beatings, and threats of physical violence, directed at discouraging membership in Industrial Union of Marine and Shipbuilding...

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7 cases
  • Soule Glass and Glazing Co. v. N.L.R.B., 79-1640
    • United States
    • United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (1st Circuit)
    • May 7, 1981
    ...enf'd, 609 F.2d 267 (6th Cir. 1979) (per curiam) (threats of violence to union supporters, assault by automobile); NLRB v. Gibbs Corp., 297 F.2d 649 (5th Cir. 1962) (beating of union organizers); NLRB v. H. R. McBride, 274 F.2d 124 (10th Cir. 1960) (nonunion company president's violence aga......
  • Tex-Cal Land Management, Inc. v. Agricultural Labor Relations Bd.
    • United States
    • California Court of Appeals
    • February 21, 1978
    ...reasoning. Violence directed against union organizers in itself can constitute an unfair labor practice. (N. L. R. B. v. Gibbs Corporation (5th Cir. 1962) 297 F.2d 649, 651; N. L. R. B. v. McBride (10th Cir. 1960) 274 F.2d 124, 126-127.) The Board noted that each assault took place in the p......
  • Ford v. Alfaro
    • United States
    • United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (9th Circuit)
    • March 27, 1986
    ...NLRA are violated by this type of conduct. See McLane/Western, Inc. v. NLRB, 723 F.2d 1454, 1456-57 (10th Cir.1983); NLRB v. Gibbs Corp., 297 F.2d 649, 651 (5th Cir.1962). that section 15(a)(3) does not protect employees against physical threats and interference with their work performance ......
  • Perry Farms, Inc. v. Agricultural Labor Relations Bd.
    • United States
    • California Court of Appeals
    • November 17, 1978
    ...constitutes an unfair labor practice. (See, e. g., Sullivan Surplus Sales, Inc. (1965) 152 NLRB 132, 149; N. L. R. B. v. Gibbs Corporation (5th Cir. 1962) 297 F.2d 649, 651; N. L. R. B. v. McBride (10th Cir. 1960) 274 F.2d 124, 126-127.) In a slightly different context, the same rule has be......
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